1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to a handling device and a method for using different instruments with the aid of a receiving device of a handling device.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
Handling devices such as robots, comprise, e.g. on robot arms, receiving devices for receiving instruments, such as e.g. tools. In case of a robot, e.g. of the type used on the medical sector and particularly in surgery, said receiving devices will take up surgical instruments. In such a situation, it can be provided that a given receiving device will take up different instruments. This will involve an exchange of the instruments or tools.
For ensuring that, at a desired point of time, the correct instrument is connected to the receiving device, the instruments can be provided with passive markings such as e.g. inscriptions or the like. With the aid of pre-defined working instructions or a clearly defined working schedule, the required instrument, having been correspondingly marked or identified, will be connected to the receiving device by a user. In medical robots, the connecting of a surgical instrument is performed by a surgical assistant as prescribed by a surgical plan or as instructed by the operating surgeon. This approach is susceptible to faults and is not flexible either.
For avoidance of a wrong connection of instruments to a receiving device, it is further possible to provide unambiguous interfaces. In this case, the interfaces of the components are designed to the effect that only desired connections are possible. The interfaces thus comprise a mechanism which prevents a wrong connection. This approach is inflexible and allows for a mere limited number of connecting options, and, particularly, the approach can be varied only with considerable expenditure.
Further, in machine tools, it is known to provide an automatic changing of tools. For this purpose, the different tools and respectively instruments are kept available in a magazine. In a control unit of the machine tool, a defined working schedule has been preset. On the basis of the working schedule, an automatic changing of tools will be performed. This is achieved in that the machine tool has knowledge of which position of the magazine has which tool arranged in it. Such an automatic changing of tools can be realized only by use of complex devices. In the changing of instruments of a medical robot, such complexity is not practicable.
It is an object of the disclosure to provide a handling device wherein different instruments can be changed in a simple manner while the occurrence of faults is to be avoided. Further, it is an object of the disclosure to provide a method for operating such a handling device.